


heavy eyes, heavy mind

by mamalovesherbagels



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: chimney is an anxious sleepless wreck about it, i'm back with another bingo card, maddie had post partum complications, oooh poor chim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:54:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28000065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mamalovesherbagels/pseuds/mamalovesherbagels
Summary: It's Chimney's first day back from paternity leave. His first day back since he and Maddie's daughter was born, and also his first day back since he almost lost the love of his life. The 118 realizes that he's not handling it all so well.
Relationships: Howie "Chimney" Han & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2048141
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	heavy eyes, heavy mind

“Just shut up! Just shut up, okay?”

He doesn’t even know that they’re talking about, he just needs them to stop. He can’t explain it, he just needs it quiet. The noise is filling him with anger and if they drone on in front of him for one more goddamn second then--

“Damn dude, what the hell is wrong with you today?” 

“Chimney, hey, are you okay?” asks a more concerned, less offended voice and it’s probably Bobby’s giving that it’s his hand being waved in front of his face.

“You look awful,” another male voice adds.

“M’fine. Just need quiet.”

“You have a migraine, Chim?” comes the next voice, a female one and he hadn’t even heard Hen’s footsteps as she approached from across the upper part of the firehouse loft.

“No. Just need it all to be quiet,” he mumbles, words garbled by the heavy, clumsy feeling of his tongue and by the fact that his head is down on the table.

“What’s wrong?” Hen asks, sliding into the chair next to his and frowning when Chimney flinches back from her hand on his shoulder, not as if he’s angry with her but as if she’s scared him, “honey, are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“He’s been kind of quiet today,” Eddie says softly, biting his lip and shifting his weight back and forth.

“Chim?” Bobby prompts, sitting down across from him and Hen, “Chimney, buddy, can you look at me, please?”

Very reluctantly he does, pulling his head up and it makes his neck ache; all his bones feel oh so very heavy and all his muscles feel shaky and like they’re made of paper. Maybe it’s dramatic, but he feels like his body is just melting.

“You look like hell, Chimney,” Bobby says slowly, exchanging a panicked look with Hen who sighs and cranes her neck to try and get a good look at him, too.

The bags under his eyes are what strike her as the most concerning, with the pale tinge to his skin a close second. Had he been like this all day? Eddie’s right, he had been quiet, almost hiding a bit and not drawing any attention to himself…

“I’m fine,” he forces himself to say, once again feeling like he’s tripping over his own words inside of his mouth, “just tired.”

Disoriented as he is, he knows that look on Hen’s face. It’s that face she makes whenever she’s just figured out what’s wrong or how to help a patient, that face she makes when suddenly all the information clicks.

“You haven’t been sleeping.”

“Well, I mean, he has a newborn,” Buck says, scrunching up his nose a bit, “Maddie hasn’t been getting much sleep either.”

“No, Buck, I don’t think he’s been sleeping AT ALL,” she clarifies, shaking her head as she says it because really, she should have known.

He had mentioned anxiety around falling asleep and feeling worried he’d wake up a crisis-- something very normal for someone whose girlfriend had woken up hemorrhaging just two days after giving birth-- and she took the admission as a sign that he was struggling but still coping; she should have realized that he was underselling it.

Maddie had been rushed to the hospital three and a half weeks ago-- it’s Chimney’s first day back from work since she gave birth. When was the last time Chimney had slept for more than an hour or two at a time? Had he been up for literal days at this point? By the looks of it, that just might be the case.

“I-I’ll call Maddie?” Buck offers shakily, and Hen shakes her head again.

“No, I mean yes, just not yet. He needs to sleep for a few hours before she comes and takes him home. Come on, Chimney, you’re coming with me,” she says nervously, grabbing his hands and trying to tug him up out of his chair.

“Can’t sleep.”

“Well, you’re sure gonna try,” she insists with a huff, “Maddie is at home, just fine with your daughter and Josh is going to be by to check on her, just like you planned. Right now the kindest thing you can do for her is to sleep.”

“But I can’t,” he whimpers, and Hen feels a piece of her heart splintering off as she pulls him up, then wrapping an arm around his waist.

“I’ll help, okay? We’ll get you to sleep, just for a few hours. Then we’ll talk and work on getting you some help. But first, a nap. Bobby, can we--”

“Yeah, take my office couch. Won’t be as many people coming and going as there are in the bunks,” he sighs, watching with eyes full of worry as Hen helps a stumbling Chimney leaning three quarters of his weight on her over in the direction of his office.

“Going to be okay,” Hen whispers, though really in this moment she’s not 100% sure that he will be okay anytime soon, “going to take a nap and then you’ll feel a bit better, okay? It’s going to be alright.”

Eddie very kindly brings them over a blanket once she has Chimney on Bobby’s office couch, laying with his head in her lap. She smiles and mouths a “thank you” at him before the door is gently shut, and it’s just the two of them again.

“Close your eyes for me, okay? You’re going to close your eyes and I’m just going to talk to you until you fall asleep,” she murmurs, carding her fingers through his hair.

“M’scared.”

“I know, I know. I understand why you’re scared and can’t imagine what that night felt like when you had to call 9-1-1 for her. I can’t imagine. But I do know what the doctors told you, hm? That Maddie is going to be perfectly fine. And I also know that you not sleeping isn’t helping anyone.”

“Not on purpose… just… can’t.”

“I know, I know,” she repeats in a whisper, “but we’re going to try right now. Just keep those eyes closed for me. You must be so, so very sleepy.”

“Mmm. The sleepiest.”

“I bet. It’s okay, Chimney, you can sleep. Nothing bad is going to happen while you’re sleeping, honey. Maddie and Ruth are at home resting and they are both just fine.”

“My girls,” he says with a bit of a half yawn.

“Your girls,” she nods encouragingly, “your girls are both okay and Josh will be over to see them soon. It’s okay, Chim.”

It takes a few more minutes of hushed assurances before his breathing evens out and she knows he’s asleep, quite possibly for the first time in over 24 hours. It hurts her heart, and she knows that this one nap isn’t going to be some sort of instant fix, but she’s glad that he’s finally resting, even if only temporarily.

She just hopes the bell doesn’t go off soon, waking him before he can get at least a few hours of much needed sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> there might be a pt 2?? i can't decide. i want to leave a one shot as just a one shot for once but... i might write a second part with maddie actually in it-- who knows! not me!


End file.
